Blockchain Developer Contracts Coronavirus After Attending Ethereum Conferences

A participant in two recent Ethereum conferences has come down with the coronavirus. It has raised concerns that others who were present at the convention may have also contracted the virus.

Dev Contracts Coronavirus after ETH Conferences: ‘Get Tested’

The coronavirus pandemic is starting to hit the cryptocurrency space. One of the attendees of two recent Ethereum conferences has contracted the virus. As he was asymptomatic at the time of the event, there are concerns that it could have been passed to many other attendees. The individual infected is Zhen Yu Yong, the co-founder of Torus Labs. Of course, he had not known he had COVID-19 until after the conference was over, but we should be reminded that the disease is still quite infectious even if symptoms are not present. Studies have shown that it can take from five days to two weeks, on average, for infected individuals to show symptoms. Yong took to Twitter to tell the community that he had contracted the disease. “Everybody who had close contact with me at ETHLondon and the Ethereum Community Conference should take extra precautions and/or get tested,” he wrote on Twitter.

I fell ill yesterday and have just been diagnosed with #COVID2019. Everybody who had close contact @EthCC_ or @ETHLondon with me should take extra precautions and/or get tested

— Zhen (@zenzhenyu) March 11, 2020

The tweet was met with an outpouring of support from the cryptocurrency community at large. It’s an unfortunate situation that reminds us to take precautions seriously. The financial sector at large has already taken efforts to ‘decentralize’ its operations to slow down the transmission of the virus.

Should Consensys 2020 Be Canceled?

If the coronavirus continues to spread, it seems likely that the upcoming Consensys 2020 conference might be canceled for the first time. It is currently scheduled to take place on May 13, 2020. Even if it is not canceled, many will likely not attend as a precautionary measure. Attendance for the recent ETHLondon conference was reportedly meager in comparison. The coronavirus has also been hitting markets especially hard. On Monday, stocks plummeted in the worst crash since 2008. Altcoins were hit especially hard and Bitcoin has still been unable to reclaim the $8,000 price point. There is support is around $7,750 but Bitcoin has been struggling to keep itself above this level.